1.Mesenchymal stem cells:Immunodulatory effects and advances in immune thrombocytopenia
Chuanhui TANG ; Ruiting WEN ; Zhigang YANG
Chinese Journal of Immunology 2025;41(3):740-742,750
Pathogenesis of immune thrombocytopenia(ITP)is complex,with a high reoccurence rate after first-line treatment and limited efficacy of second-line treatment,especially in refractory ITP,for which there is a lack of effective treatment.In recent years,it has been found that impaired function of mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs)is also involved in pathogenesis of ITP in addition to humoral and cellular immunity.Exogenous infusion of MSCs or endogenous restoration of immunomodulatory function of MSCs is expected to be an effective treatment strategy for ITP.Therefore,this article reviews biological characteristics and immunomodulatory effects of MSCs and their research progress in ITP,with aim of providing new ideas for further elucidating pathogenesis and exploring effective treatment options of ITP.
2.Research progress on biological characteristics and immune regulation of metallothionein
Siyin HE ; Ruiting WEN ; Zhigang YANG
Chinese Journal of Immunology 2025;41(9):2272-2277
Metallothionein(MT)is a group of low molecular weight metal-binding proteins rich in cysteine,which plays an important role in heavy metal detoxification,antioxidant,immune defense,cell proliferation,differentiation,and angiogenesis.In re-cent years,studies have found that MT can interact with a variety of immune cells to regulate innate and adaptive immune responses,thus playing an important role in the development of tumors,inflammatory diseases and autoimmune diseases.Therefore,this article reviews the biological characteristics of MT and its immunomodulatory effects,in order to provide new ideas for targeted therapy targeting MT.
3.Clinical Observation of Modified Zhigancao Tang in Treating Patients with Liver and Kidney Deficiency of Parkinson's Disease and Its Effect on Neuronal Signal-related Proteins
Yifo WEI ; Furong LYU ; Jia YAO ; Guonian LI ; Xianyi LUO ; Meng LUO ; Zhengzheng WEN ; Qiuqi LI ; Yihan LIU ; Linlin YANG ; Rui ZUO ; Wenxin DANG ; Fang MI ; Xiaoyan WANG ; Zhigang CHEN ; Fan LIU
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2025;31(4):166-173
ObjectiveMicrotube associated protein-2 (MAP-2), alpha-tubulin (α-tubulin), and synaptophysin (SYP) are important proteins in neuronal signal communication. This paper observed the effects of modified Zhigancao Tang on the expression of serum α-Synuclein (α-Syn) and its oligomers, MAP-2, α-tubulin, and SYP of patients with liver and kidney deficiency of Parkinson's disease (PD), analyzed their correlation, and evaluated the therapeutic effect of modified Zhigancao Tang in patients with liver and kidney deficiency of PD based on α-Syn transmission pathway mediated by neuronal communication in vivo. MethodsA total of 60 patients with PD who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into a treatment group (30 cases) and a control group (30 cases). Both groups were treated on the basis of PD medicine, and the treatment group was treated with modified Zhigancao Tang. Both groups were treated for 12 weeks. The changes in UPDRS score, TCM syndrome score, and expression of serum α-Syn and its oligomers, MAP-2, α-tubulin, and SYP were observed before and after 12 weeks of treatment in each group. The correlation between the above-mentioned serum biological indexes and the levels of serum α-Syn and its oligomers was analyzed. ResultsAfter treatment, the TCM syndrome score, UPDRS score, UPDRS-Ⅱ score, and UPDRS-Ⅲ score of the treatment group were significantly decreased (P<0.05, P<0.01). The UPDRS score, UPDRS-Ⅱ score, and UPDRS-Ⅲ scores in the treatment group were significantly decreased compared with those in the control group after treatment (P<0.05). After treatment, the total effective rate of the control group was 63.3% (19/30), and that of the treatment group was 86.7% (26/30). The clinical effect of the observation group was better than the control group (Z=-2.03, P<0.05). The total effective rate of the observation group was better than that of the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=5.136, P<0.05). After treatment, the oligomer level of serum α-Syn and MAP-2 level in the treatment group were significantly decreased (P<0.05, P<0.01). The levels of serum α-Syn and its oligomers, as well as α-tubulin in the treatment group, were significantly decreased compared with those in the control group after treatment (P<0.05, P<0.01). Serum α-Syn was correlated with serum MAP-2 and α-Syn oligomer in patients with PD (P<0.05, P<0.01) but not correlated with serum SYP . Serum α-Syn oligomers of patients with PD were correlated with serum MAP-2 and α-tubulin (P<0.05, P<0.01) but not correlated with serum SYP level. Serum SYP of patients with PD was correlated with serum MAP-2 (P<0.05). ConclusionModified Zhigancao Tang has a therapeutic effect on patients with liver and kidney deficiency of PD by inhibiting the production of α-Syn oligomers and intervening α-Syn microtubule transport pathway in vivo.
4.Mesenchymal stem cells:Immunodulatory effects and advances in immune thrombocytopenia
Chuanhui TANG ; Ruiting WEN ; Zhigang YANG
Chinese Journal of Immunology 2025;41(3):740-742,750
Pathogenesis of immune thrombocytopenia(ITP)is complex,with a high reoccurence rate after first-line treatment and limited efficacy of second-line treatment,especially in refractory ITP,for which there is a lack of effective treatment.In recent years,it has been found that impaired function of mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs)is also involved in pathogenesis of ITP in addition to humoral and cellular immunity.Exogenous infusion of MSCs or endogenous restoration of immunomodulatory function of MSCs is expected to be an effective treatment strategy for ITP.Therefore,this article reviews biological characteristics and immunomodulatory effects of MSCs and their research progress in ITP,with aim of providing new ideas for further elucidating pathogenesis and exploring effective treatment options of ITP.
5.Research progress on biological characteristics and immune regulation of metallothionein
Siyin HE ; Ruiting WEN ; Zhigang YANG
Chinese Journal of Immunology 2025;41(9):2272-2277
Metallothionein(MT)is a group of low molecular weight metal-binding proteins rich in cysteine,which plays an important role in heavy metal detoxification,antioxidant,immune defense,cell proliferation,differentiation,and angiogenesis.In re-cent years,studies have found that MT can interact with a variety of immune cells to regulate innate and adaptive immune responses,thus playing an important role in the development of tumors,inflammatory diseases and autoimmune diseases.Therefore,this article reviews the biological characteristics of MT and its immunomodulatory effects,in order to provide new ideas for targeted therapy targeting MT.
6.De Novo Assembly and Phylogenetic Study of Chloroplast Genomes of Five Species of Genus Polygonatum
Wei LI ; Mingyu ZHU ; Yuling ZENG ; Xuan WEN ; Chutong HUANG ; Xinyue FA ; Lin SEN ; Zhigang HU ; Yifei LIU
World Science and Technology-Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2025;27(1):36-55
Objective Five chloroplast(cp)genomes from members of genus Polygonatum were assembled by hybrid assembly technique,and their intraspecic and interspecific differences were analyzed by comparative genomic method.Codon usage patterns and influencing factors were determined,and the cp genome data were applied to understand the phylogenomic relationships in the entire genus Polygonatum along with the available data.Methods In this study,the chloroplast genomes of 5 species of genus Polygonatum were assembled using Unicycler software.Sequence alignment,collinearity analysis,boundary analysis and other methods were used to evaluate the interspecific differences of these five species.Nucleotide polymorphism analysis was used to discover the high-variation sites of the five species and their related species,predict the distribution of different long repeat sequences and SSRs,and then analyze the use bias of Polygonatum code.Finally,phylogenetic tree was constructed with the coding sequences of other 47 genus Polygonatum and their closely related species to explore their phylogenetic relationships in this study.Results ①Chloroplast genomes of 155 408-155 623 bp were assembled from five species of Polygonatum.A total of 132-133 genes were annotated,and 369 long repeats and 1553 simple repeats were detected.②The contraction and expansion of chloroplast genomes in 8 species were not obvious at the IRs boundary,and the size and distribution of individual genes at the LSC-IRs-SSC boundary,such as ndhF gene and ycf1 gene,were slightly different.No interspecific or intraspecific rearrangement was observed in 8 species.③ The high-variation regions of the 8 chloroplast genomes are mainly located in two single-copy regions,the duplicate copy region is relatively conserved,and the coding region is more conserved than the non-coding region.High nucleotide polymorphic loci rps16-trnQ,trnS-trnG,trnTUGU-trnL,ndhF-rpl32 and rpl32-trnL are located in the single copy region and most of them are gene spacer regions.④ The codon preference results showed that the codon preference of the five species was similar and mainly affected by selection pressure,and the third base of the codon played A dominant role and mainly ended in A/U.RSCU clustering heat map shows that PK and PZ,PCB and PS have close relationship.⑤ Phylogenetic trees divided 52 species into five branches:Ⅰ,Ⅱ,Ⅲ,ⅣandⅤ.PS,PK,PCB,PCZ and PZ were divided into ⅣandⅤbranches,among which PK and PZ were most closely related,while PCZ was more distant than the other four,was divided into the Ⅴbranch alone.Conclusion This study provided a reference for the phylogenetic research and molecular marker development of the medicinal plants of the Polygonum genus.
7.De Novo Assembly and Phylogenetic Study of Chloroplast Genomes of Five Species of Genus Polygonatum
Wei LI ; Mingyu ZHU ; Yuling ZENG ; Xuan WEN ; Chutong HUANG ; Xinyue FA ; Lin SEN ; Zhigang HU ; Yifei LIU
World Science and Technology-Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2025;27(1):36-55
Objective Five chloroplast(cp)genomes from members of genus Polygonatum were assembled by hybrid assembly technique,and their intraspecic and interspecific differences were analyzed by comparative genomic method.Codon usage patterns and influencing factors were determined,and the cp genome data were applied to understand the phylogenomic relationships in the entire genus Polygonatum along with the available data.Methods In this study,the chloroplast genomes of 5 species of genus Polygonatum were assembled using Unicycler software.Sequence alignment,collinearity analysis,boundary analysis and other methods were used to evaluate the interspecific differences of these five species.Nucleotide polymorphism analysis was used to discover the high-variation sites of the five species and their related species,predict the distribution of different long repeat sequences and SSRs,and then analyze the use bias of Polygonatum code.Finally,phylogenetic tree was constructed with the coding sequences of other 47 genus Polygonatum and their closely related species to explore their phylogenetic relationships in this study.Results ①Chloroplast genomes of 155 408-155 623 bp were assembled from five species of Polygonatum.A total of 132-133 genes were annotated,and 369 long repeats and 1553 simple repeats were detected.②The contraction and expansion of chloroplast genomes in 8 species were not obvious at the IRs boundary,and the size and distribution of individual genes at the LSC-IRs-SSC boundary,such as ndhF gene and ycf1 gene,were slightly different.No interspecific or intraspecific rearrangement was observed in 8 species.③ The high-variation regions of the 8 chloroplast genomes are mainly located in two single-copy regions,the duplicate copy region is relatively conserved,and the coding region is more conserved than the non-coding region.High nucleotide polymorphic loci rps16-trnQ,trnS-trnG,trnTUGU-trnL,ndhF-rpl32 and rpl32-trnL are located in the single copy region and most of them are gene spacer regions.④ The codon preference results showed that the codon preference of the five species was similar and mainly affected by selection pressure,and the third base of the codon played A dominant role and mainly ended in A/U.RSCU clustering heat map shows that PK and PZ,PCB and PS have close relationship.⑤ Phylogenetic trees divided 52 species into five branches:Ⅰ,Ⅱ,Ⅲ,ⅣandⅤ.PS,PK,PCB,PCZ and PZ were divided into ⅣandⅤbranches,among which PK and PZ were most closely related,while PCZ was more distant than the other four,was divided into the Ⅴbranch alone.Conclusion This study provided a reference for the phylogenetic research and molecular marker development of the medicinal plants of the Polygonum genus.
8.LIM and calponin homology domains 1 may function as promising biological markers to aid in the prognostic prediction of oral squamous cell carcinoma
Li XU ; Wen SHI ; Yuehua LI ; Yajun SHEN ; Shang XIE ; Xiaofeng SHAN ; Zhigang CAI
Journal of Peking University(Health Sciences) 2025;57(1):19-25
Objective:To explore the function of LIM and calponin homology domains 1(LIMCH1)in the development and progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC),along with their potential clinical applications.Methods:By utilizing transcriptome sequencing data from two groups of oral squa-mous cell carcinoma patients,along with bioinformatics analytical techniques such as Gene Ontology(GO)and gene co-expression networks,we identified genes that might play a pivotal role in the patho-genesis of oral squamous cell carcinoma.We employed real-time quantitative PCR and Western blotting to validate the expression patterns of these genes across twelve patient tissue samples.Furthermore,we con-ducted CCK-8 assays,flow cytometry analyses,and scratch wound healing assays to assess the impact of key genes on the biological behaviors of both the Ca127 oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line and the po-tentially malignant DOK oral lesion cell line.Additionally,we examined correlations between these key genes and clinical disease parameters in 214 oral squamous cell carcinoma patients using The Cancer Ge-nome Atlas(TCGA)data;gene set enrichment analysis(GSEA)analysis results were also incorporated to enhance our findings from real-time quantitative PCR and Western blotting regarding potential mecha-nisms underlying the action of these key genes.Results:The integrated analysis of sequencing data and bioinformatics revealed that LIMCH1 exhibited significantly reduced mRNA(P<0.001)and protein levels(P<0.01)in the oral squamous cell carcinoma tissues compared with normal control tissues.In the Ca127 cells,the low LIMCH1 level group demonstrated a larger wound healing area within 24 hours than the control group(P<0.01),enhanced proliferation capacity over 72 hours relative to the control group(P<0.01),and an increased apoptosis rate within 24 hours compared with the high expression group(P<0.05).However,no significant differences were observed between the low and high level groups in DOK cells.Furthermore,it was determined that low LIMCH1 level correlated with poor prognosis in the patients(P=0.013)and a higher lymph node metastasis rate(P<0.05).Investigations into the poten-tial mechanisms of action indicated that LIMCH1 did not influence the onset or progression of oral squa-mous cell carcinoma via the epithelial-mesenchymal transition pathway.Conclusion:LIMCH1 level may function as a promising biomarker to aid in the prognostic assessment of oral squamous cell carcinoma;however,its precise mechanistic role requires further investigation.
9.Mechanism of Traditional Chinese Medicine Intervening in Pyroptosis to Prevent and Treat Bone and Joint Related Diseases: A Review
Jutang CHAI ; Hongxia NING ; Yongzhang LI ; Xiaoyu LIU ; Xiaotao WEI ; Tao LIU ; Zhigang WEN
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2024;30(6):289-298
Osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), gouty arthritis (GA), and intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) are the most common bone and joint-related diseases in clinical practice. They can all affect related joints, leading to joint pain, swelling, dysfunction, and other symptoms. The difference is that OA is mainly caused by joint wear and age-related degradation and is manifested as joint pain, stiffness, and limited movement. RA is an autoimmune disease, manifested as joint pain, swelling, morning stiffness, and systemic symptoms. GA is caused by abnormal uric acid metabolism, manifested as acute arthritis, and IVDD is caused by intervertebral disc degeneration. Studies have shown that the mechanism of the occurrence and development of these bone and joint diseases is extremely complex. Pyroptosis is closely related to these bone and joint-related diseases by participating in bone and joint inflammation, cartilage metabolism imbalance, extracellular matrix degradation, and pathological damage of bone and joint. Inhibition of bone and joint-related pyroptosis will effectively prevent and treat bone and joint-related diseases. At the same time, many studies have confirmed that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a prominent curative effect and obvious advantages in the prevention and treatment of bone and joint-related diseases. TCM can reduce the inflammatory reaction of bone and joints, improve the pathological damage of bone and joint diseases, and relieve bone and joint pain by inhibiting pyroptosis. Therefore, this article aims to briefly explain the relationship between pyroptosis and the occurrence and development of bone and joint-related diseases and summarize the latest research reports on the intervention of pyroptosis in the treatment of bone and joint-related diseases by TCM monomers, TCM extracts, and TCM compounds. It offers new ideas for the in-depth study of the pathogenesis and drug treatment of bone and joint diseases and provides a basis for the clinical use of TCM to prevent and treat bone and joint diseases.
10.Study of the characteristics and correlation of the chin and airway in skeletal Class Ⅱ adult female patients with mandibular retraction
Yijiao YUAN ; Wen HAN ; Lei ZHEN ; Zhigang ZUO ; Yanhong ZHAO
Journal of Prevention and Treatment for Stomatological Diseases 2024;32(11):863-870
Objective To explore the characteristics and correlation of the chin and airway in females with skeletal Class Ⅱ mandibular retraction for reference for clinical diagnosis and therapy.Methods This study was approved by the hospital Medical Ethics Committee.Forty cases of skeletal Class Ⅱ mandibular retraction adult females with aver-age angle were selected as the research group,and sixty cases of skeletal Class Ⅰ patients with average angle were se-lected as the control group.Cone-beam computed tomography(CBCT)images for all subjects were analyzed using three-dimensional modeling software.Measurements included the chin morphology,position,and upper airway morphology.Results Compared with skeletal Class Ⅰ patients,patients with skeletal Class Ⅱ mandibular retraction had smaller an-terior chin thickness,base bone volume,chin total volume,and larger chin angle,chin depression,chin curvature,and alveolar area with statistically significant differences(P<0.05).Gn-V,Gn-H,Po-NB distance,and facial angle were smaller,and the Y-axis angle was larger in patients with skeletal Class Ⅱ mandibular retraction with statistically signifi-cant differences(P<0.05).Upper airway total volume,transverse and sagittal diameter of the glossopharynx upper boundary were smaller in patients with skeletal Class Ⅱ mandibular retraction with statistically significant differences(P<0.05).The correlation analysis between the morphology and position of the chin and the morphology of the upper airway in patients with Class Ⅱ mandibular retraction showed that there was a negative correlation between chin angle and laryngopharynx length in patients with Class Ⅱ mandibular retraction(r=-0.277,P<0.01).There was a negative correlation between Po-NB distance and palatopharyngeal length(r=-0.222,P<0.05).Chin height(r=-0.261,P<0.01)and basal bone area(r=-0.225,P<0.05)were negatively correlated with the transverse diameter of the palato-pharyngeal upper boundary.The minimum chin thickness(r=0.245,P<0.05),chin angle(r=0.249,P<0.05),and al-veolar area(r=0.213,P<0.05)were positively correlated with the sagittal diameter of the palatopharyngeal upper boundary.Gn-V(r=0.217,P<0.05)and Po-NB distance(r=0.208,P<0.05)were positively correlated with the trans-verse diameter of the glossopharynx upper boundary.Anterior chin thickness was negatively correlated with the sagittal diameter of the laryngopharynx upper boundary(r=-0.211,P<0.05).Chin depression was negatively correlated with the sagittal diameter of the laryngopharynx lower boundary(r=-0.237,P<0.05).Chin curvature was positively corre-lated with the transverse diameter of the laryngopharynx lower boundary(r=0.231,P<0.05).Conclusion Patients with skeletal Class Ⅱ mandibular retraction exhibit thinner chins.The sagittal position of the chin is backward,and the vertical position is upward.Patients with skeletal Class Ⅱ mandibular retraction have a narrow glossopharyngeal airway.There is a correlation between the morphology and position of the chin and the morphology of the upper airway in pa-tients with Class Ⅱ mandibular retraction.

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